Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Entrepreneurship from University'

This research work focuses on the factors which lead investors to finance university spin-outs. The achieved results related to spin-out companies in the United Kingdom are based on empirical evidence from Imperial College London. The characteristics of a sample of 557 university spin-outs have been examined in order to understand the investors’ attitude towards financing this typology of companies. The outputs of this study demonstrate that official spin-out companies supported by Imperial College are more likely to receive an investment. Furthermore, it is also shown that investors are not inclined to finance academic spin-outs in which the board of directors includes academics who are mainly involved in researching and teaching activities.

Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour, this research attempts to examine the impacts of students' entrepreneurial learning on their entrepreneurial intention. In this study, self-report data were collected from 334 students in eight higher education institutions in Hong Kong. The results of the data analysis supported the association between entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurial intention, as well as the mediating effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The moderating effect of openness was also found to be significant, whereas that of entrepreneurial climate was not. This study provides practical implications to address the issues of low start-up rates of entrepreneurship among university students and some recommendations to university educators.

Entrepreneurship has become a much discussed subject in the past years when the business world together with universities discovered that one of the factors that will help the national economy, level of innovation are the entrepreneurs. And even though there are different attitudes towards whether entrepreneurs are born or made, everyone agreed that the role of academic education is important in the creation of new entrepreneurs and developing them. Now the question is whether the universities in the way that they are conducting studies are able to offer the appropriate environment for an entrepreneur to develop or national culture has a more powerful impact on the young graduates’ entrepreneurial initiatives. The study attempts to understand how culture and education influence students to go towards an entrepreneurial career rather than preferring the security of a job. A qualitative research was conducted with groups of students from two different countries in order to better see the effects culture has, as it is an abstract concept. First, a literature review was conducted in order to clarify different concepts and to create the basis for the analysis and interpretation. Next, gathering the data- focus groups and interviews conducted with students- was an important step in being able to understand how culture and entrepreneurial education interact to each other. Afterwards, the analysis was made and the data gathered was examined through the theory previously chosen. The results lead to a framework, developed by the author, which explains the relationships between entrepreneurial education, culture and new venture creation- entrepreneurial intentions. Further research and recommendations were added at the end of the study to guide the future studies.

This thesis explores the experience of being a woman industrial designer, from her circumstances and motivations to study industrial design, through graduation from university and to professional life. It contains both an analysis of in-depth interviews with 19 female graduates from the industrial design course at the University of Technology Sydney (Australia), and a public exhibition of both their work and their reflections on being female designers.

University education is no longer a passport to secure employment for graduates. This requires young graduates to consider entrepreneurship and self-employment as a viable career option. Understanding the determinants of entrepreneurial intention (EI), therefore, becomes important. In exploring the determinants of EI, prior studies investigate the effects of individual factors, contextual factors and entrepreneurship education (EE) in isolation from each other. Moreover, literature on the effect of EE on EI shows mixed conclusions. The current study, by considering EE as the kernel, firstly examines individual and institutional determinants of EI. Secondly, it explores whether EE affects the relationships between EI and its individual and institutional determinants. To avoid bias from utilising one particular methodology, this study purposely employed a concurrent triangulation strategy. This was intended for model testing and in-depth understanding of the research issues in the Zambian context. Primary data were collected from Zambia via qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey. For the qualitative study, 13 interviews were conducted and interviewees included final year undergraduate students, educators and practitioners in enterprise support organisations. For the quantitative study, 452 useful responses were received from final year undergraduate students. Research results suggest that, firstly, EI is primarily a function of perceived feasibility and desirability of entrepreneurship. Secondly, individual and institutional factors directly influence perceived feasibility and desirability of entrepreneurship. Thirdly, and more importantly, individual and institutional factors indirectly exert their impact on perceived feasibility and desirability via EE. The study contributes to knowledge in four major areas. Firstly, against the backdrop of mixed conclusions in prior research about the effect of EE on EI, this study finds that the effect of EE should be examined in conjunction with factors at individual and institutional levels. Specifically, it establishes that effectiveness of EE mediates the effects of individual and institutional factors on perceived feasibility and desirability of entrepreneurship i.e. the attitudinal antecedents of EI. This helps clarify the role of EE. Secondly, unlike prior studies and models that examine the influence of EE, individual factors and contextual factors in isolation from each other, this study develops and validates a multi-level integrated model to explore how these factors jointly shape EI. Specifically, the model shows that factors at individual and institutional levels influence EI not only through their effects on perceived feasibility and desirability but also through their impact on the effectiveness of EE. Thirdly, the study provides evidence from Zambia, an under-researched developing country, that EI is primarily a function of perceived feasibility and desirability of entrepreneurship. This supports prior research conclusions from developed countries. Lastly, the study further develops and validates constructs for EE, providing a basis for evaluating EE. In particular, it demonstrates that effectiveness of EE in relation to EI can be evaluated from three angles: perceived learning from the module/programme, experiential learning and access to resources. On the whole, the findings derived suggest that, in order to promote graduate entrepreneurship, multifaceted and concerted efforts will be required from policy makers (to help shape institutions), practitioners (to devise and implement collaborative support mechanisms), educators (to design and deliver appropriate EE content and pedagogy) and scholars (to evaluate and develop knowledge). Acknowledgements I am entirely responsible for the work presented in this thesis. However, at the same time I acknowledge that work of this magnitude and depth can never be solely the effort of one individual. There are many stakeholders to thank. I am greatly indebted to the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission (UK) for offering the Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship, the Coppebelt University for granting the study leave, and the University of Wolverhampton Business School’s Management Research Centre for facilitating the research project. I am also indebted to my supervisors, Dr Yong Wang (Director of Studies), Dr Ian Mckeown and Dr Graham Tate for guiding me through this study. Without Dr Yong Wang’s dedicated direction, mentoring and support, this project would not have been finished properly. Special thanks go to the eight universities in Zambia which authorised and facilitated access to the final year students for the survey. Special gratitude also goes to the lecturers, students and enterprise support practitioners in Zambia who participated in the interviews. I am also grateful to all the staff at the University of Wolverhampton for their support. Particularly, I wish to thank Prof Silke Machold, Prof Mike Haynes, Prof Les Worrall, Dr Paschal Anosike, Dr Stuart Farquhar and Steven Greenfield for their encouragement and support. I thank Andy (Dr Jones), David and Aurelian (Dr Mbzibain) for all the insightful discussions in ML119 and ML120. Lastly, words are not adequate for appreciating my wife and best friend Bernadette and our children Bruce, Grace and Benita for their encouragement and sacrifice during this research project. I end this section with gratitude to God for life and blessing.

A lo largo de esta tesis doctoral estudio el fenómeno de las empresas universitarias (EU). Las EU son empresas que han sido recientemente creadas por miembros de una universidad madre (profesorado, investigadores, estudiantes o personal administrativo) con el objetivo de comercializar el conocimiento y/o la tecnología inicialmente desarrollada en la universidad madre (UM). Basándose en el modelo de la Triple Hélice desarrollado por Etzkowitz durante los noventas, muchas de las universidades investigadoras en el mundo comenzaron a transferir conocimientos y tecnologías desarrolladas internamente al sector privado (mercados e industrias). En este sentido, las universidades investigadoras se han convertido en importantes polos de creación de nuevas empresas basadas en el conocimiento. Además, las EU son agentes locales de desarrollo socio-económico y en algunos casos las EU son las que impulsan el progreso y avance tecnológico a nivel regional. En el capítulo uno realizo un estudio bibliométrico y una revisión de literatura donde incluyo 328 documentos académicos (artículos, libros, tesis doctorales, etc.) accesibles a través de la base de datos Google Scholar. Los resultados del estudio revelan que las EU atrajeron la atención de los académicos a principios de los setenta y que en las últimas cuatro décadas hemos sido testigos de un fuerte incremento en el número de artículos, autores y revistas que tratan el fenómeno de las EU. Además, siguiendo una metodología cuantitativa, he sido capaz de clasificar la literatura sobre EU en tres corrientes principales: (i) estudios seminales sobre EU, (ii) la corriente principal en el estudio de EU y (iii) nuevas avenidas en la investigación de EU. En el capítulo dos, me baso en la revisión de literatura del capítulo anterior para desarrollar una definición coherente y ecléctica de las EU. Además en este capítulo también desarrollo una taxonomía de las EU identificando cuatro tipos de EU principales: (i) spin-offs académicas, (ii) start-ups académicas, (iii) spin-offs no-académicas y (iv) satrt-ups no-académicas. En la segunda parte del capítulo me baso en un estudio empírico de 94 EU creadas en Catalunya para desarrollar el perfil de cada uno de los tipos principales de EU identificados anteriormente. En el capítulo tres, realizo un estudio longitudinal para evaluar los factores de las universidades madre (UM) que son determinantes en la creación de EU. Los resultados revelan que los recursos físicos y humanos de las UM no afectan significativamente la tasa de creación de EU por parte de las UM, los recursos sociales y tecnológicos de las UM son factores determinantes en la creación de EU. En el capítulo cuatro, realizo un estudio de once casos de EU creadas con el apoyo de dos UM catalanas (la UAB y la UdG) para comprender cómo hacen las EU para sortear los obstáculos que se encuentran durante el proceso de creación y desarrollo. Los resultados del estudio revelan que las EU utilizan una amplia variedad de recursos, capacidades e instituciones del entorno para sobrepasar los obstáculos en su desarrollo empresarial. Finalmente en el capítulo cinco de esta tesis doctoral investigo cuál es la influencia del capital humano aportado por los fundadores de EU sobre la probabilidad de supervivencia de estas empresas. Basándome en la Teoría del Capital Humano y extendiendo el Modelo de Salida Emprendedora desarrollado por Gimeno et al. (1997), encuentro que mientras el capital humano que está relacionado con el conocimiento empresarial o universitario aumentan la probabilidad de supervivencia de las EU, el capital humano relacionado con el conocimiento del sector industrial tiene un efecto negativo sobre la probabilidad de supervivencia de las EU.<br>In this doctoral dissertation I study the phenomenon of university-based companies (UBC) in Spain. UBC are recently created companies founded by university members (faculty, researchers, students and staff) with the aim of commercially exploiting some knowledge or technology originally developed inside Parent Universities (PU). Based on the Triple Helix model developed by Etzkowitz in the nineties, most research universities started to transfer knowledge and technology developed in-house to the private sector (markets and industries). In this sense, during the last three decades research universities around the globe have become important poles of new venture creation. Moreover, UBC have proven to be significant agents of local socio-economic development and in some cases they become the drivers of regional technological progress. In chapter one, I have undertaken a comprehensive bibliometric study and a detailed literature review including 328 UBC-related documents published and accessible at Google Scholar database. The results show that the UBC have raised the attention of scholars during the early seventies and that there was a rampant increase in the number of published documents, authors and journals treating the UBC phenomenon during the last four decades. Moreover, following a quantitative methodology I have been able to classify the UBC literature in three main streams: (i) seminal UBC studies, (ii) mainstream UBC literature and (iii) new avenues in UBC research. In chapter two, I first draw on the literature reviewed in the previous chapter to develop an eclectic definition of UBC. Moreover, in chapter two I also developed a coherent UBC taxonomy and obtained four main types of UBC: (i) academic spin-offs (ASO), (ii) academic start-up (ASU), (iii) non-academic spin-off (USO) and (iv) non-academic start-up (USU). In the second part of this chapter, I draw on an empirical analysis of 94 UBC created with the support of ten Catalonian universities to characterize the profile of the different UBC types identified in the first part of the chapter. In chapter three we undertake a longitudinal study to evaluate Parent University (PU) determinant factors of UBC creation. Our results show that PU’s start-up resources, start-up capabilities and start-up institutions are significant predictors of UBC creation rates. In particular, we have found that while physical and human university start-up resources do not affect the rate of UBC creation by PU, technological and social university start-up resources are positively associated with the rate of UBC creation by PU. In chapter four I have done a multiple case study of eleven UBC created with the support of two Catalonian universities (UAB and UdG) to understand how UBC overcome obstacles (critical junctures) in their development process. The results show that UBC use a variety of resources, capabilities and institutions in order to overcome different critical junctures during their development process. In the final chapter of this doctoral dissertation I assess the influence of founders’ human capital characteristics over UBC survival. Drawing on the Human Capital Theory and extending the Threshold Model of Entrepreneurial Exit developed by Gimeno et al. (1997), I found that while UBC founders’ entrepreneurial human capital and university human capital enhance the probability of firm survival, industry human capital of founders is negatively related to UBC survival.

There has been increasing interest in open innovation in academic research as well as industry application since the concept was introduced in 2003. The concept got much attention because of its economic benefits and novel means for facilitating innovation. This thesis aims to adapt the concept of open innovation to the university environment, in order to foster innovation in the development process for intellectual property (IP) derived from academic research activities. It contributes to the literature on open innovation adapted to the university context, i.e. open collaboration on the development of intellectual property towards a commercial ready stage. In order to investigate the potential of open innovation in the university environment, a focus group was conducted. In addition, the business process of Quirky Inc. was analysed as an example to better understand how open innovation works in the business context. The results of the study’s data analyses inform new opportunities for interventions in universities towards fostering different approaches to IP development as research outcomes. Further, it reveals interventions that can promote open innovation approaches in the university’s context more generally.

博士<br>國立臺南大學<br>教育經營與管理研究所博士班<br>100<br>University is an adaptative organization. After the First and the Second Academic Revolutions, teaching, research and service are affirmed as the main functions of university. In 1980, the Bayh-Dole Act allowed universities to invest with research results, and that made universities more entrepreneurial, particularly due to the deficiency of budget from government. Transforming efforts were then made deliberately to be an entrepreneurial university. However, how will entrepreneurship change the practices of university functions? This study aims to explore the practices of university functions from the perspective of entrepreneurship. A case-study approach is used to reveal the transformation of an entrepreneurial university in Taiwan while interview and documents are adopted for data collection. It firstly offers analysis to the reasons and aims of transformation of the case university. After that, the practices of entrepreneurship on university functions are discussed. The findings are as follows: I. The reasons to promote the transformation of the case university as an entrepreneurial university are: 1. Entrepreneurship is close to management and business, and the principal with management and business background of the case university wishes to make use of it. Thus, entrepreneurial university as a way to manage a university is proposed so as to bring in more resources and opportunities. 2. Entrepreneurship is tallied with pragmatism of science and technology education, and that promotes case university to be an entrepreneurial university. 3. The experience of successful transformation of exchange university inspires the case university to be an entrepreneurial university. II. The aims to transform as an entrepreneurial university include: 1. To make marketing position and education features, 2. To create the entrepreneurial culture and atmosphere, 3. To have more resources and set up the network of alumni. III. Practices of entrepreneurship on teaching of case university are: 1. The cultivation of innovation and entrepreneurship is emphasized rather than the dissemination of knowledge. 2. Innovation and Entrepreneurship curricular program is offered while learning materials are edited by faculty and website is established in the meantime. 3. Students are guided to have thoughts and implications about entrepreneurship from team-teaching. IV. Practices of entrepreneurship on research of case university are: 1. Disadvantageous researchers can get more resources and utilities from the aggregration of university. 2. Entrepreneurial researchers are models of the research team and that help students in pursuit of employability in the future. 3. Research comes closer to the market and is pragmatic; however, basic research and applied research are still complementary. V. Practices of entrepreneurship on service of case university are: 1. University takes more active actions and cross-discipline as ways to serve industry. 2. Services can be provided by the cooperation of the newly-setup and existed units. According to the findings and discussions, this study then concludes that firstly, the context of case university catalyzed by entrepreneurship can be taken as a crucial turning point to transform as an entrepreneurial university. Secondly, from the perspective of entrepreneurship, the university functions have changed through innovative thoughts and practices. A paradigm to cultivate the talents is built up, the research contracts tallied with market demands bring in diversified funding and the cooperation between university and industry is promote by relying on the matching of responsible units. Thirdly, deliberate efforts are essential to transform as an entrepreneurial university. However, the gaps should be narrowed and the changes should be carried out incrementally and sustainably. If these could be done, then the pathways of transformation proposed by Burton Clark can be served as a transformation framework. The concluding remarks of this study also encompass suggestions and reflections.

Over the past two decades, the South African economy has witnessed a decrease in its capacity to recruit new entrants into the formal labour market. South Africa’s economy is not producing enough employment opportunities to accommodate the influx of annual new entrants into the labour market, such as school leavers. As a result of the inadequate ability of South Africa’s formal labour market to absorb new entrants, coupled with the rising youth unemployment, the South African government has prioritised the development of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and entrepreneurship as a means to combat these challenges. Entrepreneurship, as a recognised intervention for the development and growth of an economy through the creation of jobs and poverty alleviation, is an important topic in business literature. Many countries around the world are increasingly recognising the significant contributions that SMMEs make to the employment and income generation aspects of the economy. Despite the contributions that SMMEs and small organisations (SOs), including small service organisations (SSOs), make to the economy, they have multiple difficulties to overcome. While SOs are viewed as powerful mechanisms that contribute to economic development and growth through increasing employment opportunities and wealth, they face certain obstacles that impede their growth potential and, sometimes, even lead to failure. Business incubators are organisations established to support SOs and SMMEs and are recognised as making a significant contribution to reducing business failure. South Africa and countries all over the world are beginning to appreciate the value of incubators as salient institutions that support small organisations. Various forms of business incubators have been developed, including university business incubators (UBIs) which provide support for potential entrepreneurs through ensuring that mentoring, financing, networks and business training is available. Business incubators offer incubation programmes, which include a variety of services and networking resources, to incubates. Whilst numerous studies have been done on the services that incubators offer incubates in the international context, limited research has been conducted on the services that entrepreneurs require from a UBI in the South African context. The primary objective of this study was to determine the essential incubator services that small service organisations require from UBIs within the South African context in order to guide the formation of policy objectives, marketing strategies and marketing procedures. The target population relevant to this study was defined as owners/managers of small service organisations situated in the Vaal Triangle region of South Africa. The sampling frame for the study comprised a list of small service organisations situated in the Vaal Triangle region, as obtained from the Vaal Triangle Info Business Directory. From this sampling frame, a non-probability judgement sample of 125 owners/managers of SSOs in the auto, estate agents and property management, health care and beauty, hospitality and accommodation, and professional service industry sectors was drawn. An unsolicited calling approach was followed, whereby the researcher personally visited each small service organisation individually to request permission to partake in the study. Thereafter, self-administered questionnaires were delivered for completion by the relevant owners/managers of each participating SSO, which were collected thereafter. In order to measure their perceptions of essential UBI services, participants were requested to indicate on a six-point Likert scale the level of unimportance or importance of 41 services. The owners/managers‟ perceptions of the importance of the six UBI service constructs over the business life-cycle phases were measured using multiple-choice questions, whereby the participants were asked to choose one of the five alternatives provided. The owners/managers‟ perceived value of UBI services was measured using dichotomous questions. In addition, certain demographical data were requested from the participants. The findings of this study indicate that the owners/managers of SSOs perceive UBI services as being important. They indicated networking and professional services as the most important UBI services, followed by management services, general business services, physical facilities and financial consulting services, of which university services were perceived as being the least important. The findings suggest that the UBI services were mostly required in the pre-start-up, start-up and growth phases of the SSO‟s business life-cycle phases. While UBI services were deemed important by both young and mature organisations, the owners/managers of young organisations perceived management services as more important than those of more mature organisations. In terms of the perceived value of UBI services, the findings reveal that although owners/managers perceived the UBI services to be important, they expressed minimal interest in utilising those services. Based on the participants‟ level of agreement concerning the perceived importance of UBI services, cluster analysis revealed two clusters, namely Cluster 1 and Cluster 2. The participants in Cluster 1, comprising more female participants and young organisations, perceived the UBI services as more important than those participants in Cluster 2. Since the idea of UBIs is relatively new in South African, and given that they have yet to prove their value to industry, getting stakeholders to buy into the concept remains a daunting task. Insights gained from this study will help business incubators, universities, government and other stakeholders understand current entrepreneurs‟ perceptions towards the important UBI services required by SSOs. This, in turn, will help guide UBIs in the formation of their policy objectives, marketing strategies and marketing procedures.<br>PhD (Marketing Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015.

碩士<br>國立中山大學<br>資訊管理學系研究所<br>105<br>This study explored the entrepreneurial behavior of college students in the campus, and campus Incubation Center to promote entrepreneurship-related project in the process of the campus. Use the semi-structured interviews were analyzed multiple interviews of the case. Whereby students learn entrepreneurial team is looking forward to the next campus Incubation Center counseling program, feel and bred after the results, student motivation and entrepreneurial behavior, background and process environment. Combined with past research literature will gather content after finishing inductive analysis. For the students entrepreneurial team, campus Incubation Centre made a number of operational issues and recommendations on: 1. Promote entrepreneurship-related activities within the campus apart, it is possible to cooperate with the relevant departments and entrepreneurship courses. 2. Students entrepreneurial team for business counseling program is not very clear expectations, objectives or requirements of a high standard. Build the students entrepreneur group.

This study explains the rise and fall of the Innovations Foundation, the University of Toronto's first office dedicated to the transfer of university-developed technologies to industry. Drawing on extensive archival research, ten interviews with key informants, and other sources, the case study traces the evolution of the Foundation from its launch in 1980 to its closure in 2006. The study delineates three distinct business models under which the Foundation operated from 1980 to 1990, 1990 to 1999, and 1999 to 2006. The reasons for the adoption and failure of each model are explored and a historically grounded, context-sensitive explanation of the university's decision to dismantle the Foundation in 2006 is provided. This explanation emphasizes the importance of managing unrealistic expectations for Canadian university technology transfer, and adds weight to a growing consensus on the importance of historical path-dependence as a conceptual tool for understanding the persistence of differentials in technology transfer performance among universities.

In this paper we investigate the economic, political, institutional, and societal factors that encourage entrepreneurial activity. We do so by applying Bayesian Model Averaging, which controls for model uncertainty, to a panel data set for 33 countries. Our results indicate that the general state of macroeconomic activity, the availability of financing, the level of human capital, fiscal policies implemented and the type of economic system are the main determinants of the level of entrepreneurship. We also document a non-linear, U-shaped relation between distortionary taxation and entrepreneurial activity. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Activity, Total Early-Stage Activity (TEA), Global Entrepreneurial Monitor (GEM), Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA), Panel Estimation. JEL Classification: B30, B53, C11, C23, J20, M13, O10, O40

Academic Spin-Off companies creation represents a valuable technology transfer channel through patent creation and commercialization and is considered to be one of the main tools for the exploitation of university research results. In this thesis, ASO Acquisition and Sales strategies have been considered as positive and significant post-entry performance, examining on one side how the governance gender structure impacts the ASO post-entry performance, on the other how Venture Capital influence ASOs growth strategy and facilitate firms’ acquisition. Much of the research available in the literature have focused on USA’s spin-offs, while this topic has not received sufficient attention for the European countries. Despite the well-recognized value of studying the Academic Spin-Offs phenomenon, empirical studies on this topic are continuously constrained by the limited availability of data (Shane, 2004). Therefore, a comprehensive and organic database providing data from different national and EU level ASO records is not currently available. Only few country level data are available. For this reason, I collected data from different sources and I built a new macro-level academic spin-offs database, based on information of European spin-off companies. Hence, this study is unique because it draws on a macro-level database, based on three different European countries over a 10 years period and data have been collected in several stages. The final comprehensive dataset includes time-variant information from 2009 to 2018 of almost 2.000 spin-off companies at European, national and regional level.